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2024 Thaxton, Mississippi tornado
|type = EF5 tornado |image location = Smithville Tornado from Dam.png |image caption = Tornado near peak strength at 4:37 pm. |date = April 12, 2024 |times = 1603-1727 |touchdown = 4:03 pm CDT |winds = 280 mph (estimated) |injuries = 92 |fatalities = 24 |damage = $187.6 million (2024 USD) |areas = Panola, Lafayette, Pontotoc, Union, Lee, and Prentiss counties in Mississippi |tornado season = 2024 tornado season }} The 2024 Thaxton, Mississippi tornado was a deadly, long-tracked and extremely violent EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that tracked through northern Mississippi late in the afternoon of Friday, April 12, 2024. The tornado was part of the largest tornado outbreak in recorded history, the 2024 Super Outbreak, which produced 486 tornadoes across 19 states over the course of four days, and one of eight EF5 tornadoes that touched down on April 12. The tornado first touched down in rural Panola County near Courtland at 4:03 pm CDT and tracked east-northeast across most of Mississippi into western Alabama, dissipating near Red Bay at 5:27 pm. The most extreme EF5 damage produced by the tornado occurred in and near the town of Thaxton, while the town of Taylor and the small unincorporated community of Cornish sustained high-end EF4 damage. Additional EF4 and high-end EF3 damage occurred in Yocona, Ercu, and to the south of Saltillo. The Thaxton tornado remained on the ground for 1 hour and 24 minutes over a 98.60-mile path, and caused a total of 24 fatalities and 92 injuries; 20 of the fatalities occurred in a two-mile stretch of the path in and near Thaxton. The tornado was the deadliest in the state of Mississippi since the F4 Transylvania tornado on February 21, 1971, as well as the longest-tracked tornado in the state since the EF4 Yazoo City tornado on April 24, 2010. Damage surveys estimated peak winds in the tornado at 280 miles per hour, with house and vegetation damage around Thaxton described as being "particularly extreme". The parent supercell of the Thaxton tornado was long-lived and tracked through Alabama and Tennessee into North Carolina, and produced several other tornadoes including a violent EF4 tornado which tracked through the town of Beech Grove, Tennessee in the mid-evening hours. Meteorological synopsis The Thaxton tornado was one of 486 tornadoes produced during the 2024 Super Outbreak, the largest and most intense tornado outbreak on record in the United States. The outbreak was produced by an intense low-pressure system that developed over the Central Plains states in the early morning of April 10. As the system moved eastward over the Midwestern States it was further intensified by a warm and extremely humid mass of air and particularly sharp temperature gradient across the system. As early as April 8, forecast conditions for April 12 were notably analogous to April 3, 1974, and the Storm Prediction Center issued a 30% risk of significant severe weather over much of the Eastern United States. By the morning of April 12, a large-scale trough extended over nearly two-thirds of the contiguous United States, and a very powerful 80–100 knot mid-level jet stream moved into the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys behind the trough and created strong wind shear, along with a low pressure center moving quickly northeastward across those areas on April 12. During the afternoon of April 12, CAPE values were estimated to be in the range of 2000–3000 J/kg across Louisiana and southern Mississippi, with the moderate instability moving northeastward across the southern Tennessee Valley; additionally, temperatures across the southeastern United States ranged from the 70s°F (mid-20s°C) to the lower 90s°F (near 35 °C). Helicity levels ranged from 450–600 m2/s2, which supported some significant tornadic activity and strong to violent long-track tornadoes. The morning hours of April 12 were overcast across most of the Southeastern states, with numerous rain showers and scattered thunderstorms occurring. The cloud cover began to break at around 9:30 am CDT, and within two hours, several extremely intense supercells began to develop over Louisiana and Arkansas. At around 2:30 pm CDT, a particularly violent EF5 tornado passed to the southeast of Cleveland, Mississippi, killing six people and causing extreme ground scouring and vegetation damage. At around the same time, a violent EF4 tornado developed in rural areas of Carroll County and tracked through the city of Winona at 2:48 pm, devastating the north side of town and killing seven people. The parent supercell of the EF5 Cleveland tornado produced a very large EF3 tornado just before 3:00 pm, which cut a 1.7-mile wide path through Oakland, killing one person. As the tornadic supercells continued east towards Alabama, another EF4 tornado left a 49-mile track across northeastern Mississippi, causing 11 fatalities in and near the town of Bruce. The Thaxton tornado was produced by a second and more widely scattered group of supercells that developed as the initial cluster moved across Alabama towards Tennessee and Georgia. This second wave of supercells produced several intense to violent tornadoes in Mississippi, including a long-tracked EF4 tornado which touched down at 6:27 pm and struck the city of Aberdeen, causing four deaths. The parent supercell of the Thaxton tornado produced several other strong tornadoes over the course of its life cycle, including an EF3 which struck Rogersville, Alabama, an EF2 which passed to the northwest of Elkton, Tennessee and another EF2 which tracked through Manchester, Tennessee. The final significant tornado produced by the supercell was a long-tracked and high-end EF4 which devastated the city of Crossville, Tennessee in the late evening hours, killing 11 people and injuring 89. Tornado summary The tornado touched down over a rural subdivision to the southeast of Courtland at 4:03 pm CDT and tracked to the east-northeast at roughly 70 miles per hour. The first damage from the tornado occurred near Long Creek and was limited to trees, which were toppled. Casualties and impact Category:F5/EF5 Tornadoes Category:Violent Tornadoes Category:Catastrophic Tornadoes Category:Mississippi Tornadoes